Weekly Dose of Optimism #116

SpaceX Week, Big Tech & Small Reactors, Machines of Loving Grace, NNC2215, Esmerelda, Airships

Hi friends 👋,

Happy Friday and welcome back to our 116th Weekly Dose of Optimism. Rocket launches/rocket catches, one small reactor/one giant leap for big tech, and a handful of other solid stories round out this week's edition. We humans are starting to make this whole optimism thing look easy.

Let's get to it.

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(1) WATCH: SpaceX catches Starship rocket booster back at the launch pad

You’ve seen this video already. The entire world has seen this video already. And yet, it would be silly not to include it as the lead off story of this week’s Weekly Dose. SpaceX launched and then caught a Starship rocket. For some context, Starship is 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty and roughly the same height as a 40-story office tower. Imagine blasting a 40-story skyscraper into space and then safely and precisely catching it with no unexpected damage from the same place it took off.

Tim Urban captured how bringing the baby to watch the event live impacted him on WaitButWhy. But even if you weren’t there — we weren’t — it had to make you proud to be a human. Look at us!

SpaceX’s mission is, in and of itself, inspiring. If SpaceX is successful, humans will be a multi-planetary species and our risk of extinction will be greatly reduced. And in achieving that, SpaceX will likely be considered the most important company in history. But even if, for some reason, they fail, the company has accomplished so much already. They have reignited the imagination and ambitions of a generation.

Nothing quite gets the people going like launching shit into SpaceX, and nobody launches (and now catches) shit into space like SpaceX.

Your turn…

(2) NASA launches mission to investigate a potentially habitable ocean world

Ashley Strickland for CNN

A mission to study one of the solar system’s most promising environments that may be suitable for life has lifted off. NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft — designed to explore its namesake, Jupiter’s moon Europa — launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Monday at 12:06 p.m. ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

It’s SpaceX week. If they’d just done the catch, they would have deserved two slots, but fortunately, they' did a second incredibly cool, if more standard, thing.

Lost amidst the pomp and circumstance of the Starship catch, SpaceX was doing some real business last week too. A SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft on Monday.

The aptly-named Europa mission will study Jupiter's moon, Europa, which has one of the most promising environments for potential life in the solar system. This particular moon is home to an ice-covered ocean, which may contain conditions conducive to life. The craft is expected to arrive at Jupiter in 2030 and upon arrival it will conduct 49 flybys, analyzing its ocean's depth, chemistry, and potential habitability.

We’ll be sure to report back in 2030 with the findings.

(3) Tech Goes Nuclear

a) Amazon signs agreements for innovative nuclear energy projects to address growing energy demands

and…

b) New nuclear clean energy agreement with Kairos Power

The Hyperscaler nuclear race is on. Over the past week, both Amazon and Google signed major nuclear deals, as they look for affordable, clean, and flexible sources of energy to fuel their every growing resource needs.

First, Amazon has signed three new agreements to support the development of nuclear energy projects, including Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), and announced its investment in SMR maker, X-Energy. Amazon is investing over $500 million to develop SMRs, partnering with Dominion Energy to explore building an SMR near an existing nuclear facility in Virginia, and collaborating with Energy Northwest to construct four advanced SMRs in Washington state.

Not to be outdone, Google signed a groundbreaking agreement with Kairos Power to purchase energy from a fleet of SMRs to power its AI data centers. The deal involves six to seven SMRs, with the first reactor expected to be operational by 2030 and the rest coming online by 2035, providing a total of 500 megawatts of clean, continuous power.

SMRs are hot. They are nuclear fission reactors that are significantly smaller and more compact than traditional nuclear power plants, and typically generate up to 300 MWe of electricity. SMRs are designed to be factory-built, easily transported, and installed on-site in modules, offering greater flexibility and lower costs compared to large-scale nuclear plants.

Amazon and Google may prefer SMRs due to their scalability, reduced capital investment, smaller physical footprint, and enhanced safety features, allowing for easier integration into their existing data center infrastructure.

That said, both X-Energy and Kairos are planning to build advanced reactors — never before approved by the NRC — using advanced TRISO fuels. Amazon is not one to waste money (Google, maybe, but not Amazon!), so their involvement is both a sign that they believe there’s a path to approval and another set of muscles in the push to get these incredibly safe, potentially cheap reactors approved.

We are living in a nuclear powered-AI revolution. Imagine saying that sentence just 3 years ago.

4) Machines of Loving Grace

From Dario Amodei

I think that most people are underestimating just how radical the upside of AI could be, just as I think most people are underestimating how bad the risks could be.

Dario Amodei and his company, Anthropic are known for advocating for AI safety and paying particular attention to AI risks and controllability. But he’s no doomer! Anthropic may pay an outsized amount of attention to risks relative to its competitors, but I imagine that Dario and team didn’t just get into this game for risk mitigation — they want to play an important role in building a beautiful future. He believes the risks, while real, are a manageable obstacle on the path to a very positive future.

Given his relative caution, his optimism is all the more notable.

In this well-researched and reasoned essay, Amodei suggests that when “powerful AI” occurs (he doesn’t like the term AGI), we may experience a century’s worth of progress in just 5-10 years. He focuses on five key areas where AI could have the most impact:

• Biology and Physical Health: Advancement in biological research, leading to cures for diseases, extended lifespans, and overall improvements in physical well-being.

• Neuroscience and Mental Health: Revolutionize neuroscience by enhancing our understanding of the brain, leading to better treatments for mental illnesses and improved mental health.

• Economic Development and Poverty: Boost global economic growth, alleviate poverty, and reduce inequalities between nations.

• Peace and Governance: Strengthen democratic institutions and promote peace by improving governance and decision-making processes.

• Work and Meaning: Redefine the nature of work, offering new forms of meaningful engagement and helping humans find purpose in an AI-augmented world.

Hey Dario, shake my hand. We’re aligned.

5) ‘Smart’ insulin prevents diabetic highs — and deadly lows

Diana Kwon for Nature

In animals, the molecule automatically reduced blood-sugar levels without causing them to dip too much.

It feels like every week there’s some new research on diabetes or obesity or some other condition that’s impacted by blood-glucose levels. This week was no different.

Researches have developed a new form of 'smart' insulin called NNC2215 that can automatically switch its activity on and off based on blood-glucose levels. This insulin molecule is engineered to remain inactive when glucose levels are low and activate when they rise. Essentially, the smart insulin prevents blood-sugar levels from rising, without causing them too drop to dangerous levels. In animal studies, NNC2215 outperformed current insulin treatments. If commercialized, the molecule could improve diabetes management by reducing the risk of hypoglycemia (abnormally low blood sugar) and easing the burden of constant blood-sugar monitoring.

Bonus: Esmerelda

Packy here. Progress doesn’t just mean technology. Sometimes, you can just build a new town.

Yesterday, Devon Zugel announced that she’s launching a new town: Esmerelda, “a new village for families building the future.” It will be located in wine country 90 minutes north of SF, draw inspiration from Italian hill towns, and work off of five design principles:

1. Support a multi-generational community

2. Prioritize pedestrians & cyclists over cars

3. Cultivate a culture of learning & building

4. Protect & harmonize with nature

5. Promote health & wellness

Devon has been studying cities for years, and launched a popup - Edge Esmerelda - earlier this year, so maybe it’s not the case that anyone can start a town, but I love the fact that more and more people are just going for it.

Double Bonus: Cargo Airships are Happening

by Eli Dourado

Nothing says “we’re back” like four ex-SpaceX engineers teaming up to build massive airships. So… we’re back.

Eli Dourado has been obsessed with airships for a few years, culminating in a very popular blog post last year titled Cargo airships could be big. One of the people who read the blog post was Jim Coutre, who spent several years as an engineer at SpaceX before becoming the Chief Engineer at Hyperloop. After reading it, Jim started a spreadsheet and worked what exactly it would take to build huge airships for cargo.

As Eli wrote in the follow-up — Cargo airships are happening — Jim found one discrepancy in Eli’s post. Eli said that Airships could be cheaper but slower than air freight. Jim realized that, when you take into account the steps on either side of the plane, and design an Airship that can just hover over a customer’s facility to pickup goods on one side and hover over a customer’s facility to dropoff goods on the other, airships can actually be faster than planes.

Better, faster, cheaper. That’s my music.

Luckily, Jim decided to build Airship Industries, and Eli introduced us. I’m positively buoyant to be able to back Jim and the Airship Industries team out of Not Boring Capital.

Follow Jim and Airship to watch the progress in real-time.

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Have a great weekend y’all.

Thanks to Percent for sponsoring! We’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday.

Thanks for reading,

Packy + Dan